Fresno Famous

So, you're crammed up at the bar at Tokyo Garden. It's a capacity crowd, or more, and hot and sweaty in the best (and also worst) possible way. If you've seen this many people packed in the place before, it had to be back in 2004 or so.

When you finally grab the bartender's attenion and ask for a tall Sapporro (that being the drink of choice at Tokyo Garden) he just shakes his head. 

"All gone," he says. The snobbier beer drinkers have already switched to gin.

And that's how you end Fresno Urban Sound Experience 2012, tucked in a back booth listening to a band you haven't heard before (the Ornery Ones, who were great BTW) and drinking a Corona because it's either that or Bud Lite.

Earlier that night you almost passed out from exhaustion while jumping on to the drum kit and screaming for the crowd to "DANCE!" (or that's what I did at least). Before that you watched a rap battle under the Warnor's Theatre marquee and couldn't quite tell who won, and before THAT you watched a dude dancing at the end of Fulton Street while Strawberry Jam wailed away. Then you had some kind of awesome duck tacos from Dusty Buns (or at least that's what I did). The night before you had a trio of tacos from the Tako BBQ food truck, which blew your mind, as did the band Werebear whose set at the Lamppost, which was later described (by them and probably others) as one of their best ever. You missed Fatty Cakes and most of SparkleJet (or I did at least), but it was OK because there were 15 bands playing that night (40-plus for the weekend) and you weren't going to catch them all.

And besides, there were plenty of second-hand Twitter and Facebook reviews.